Rules Blog for the week of 25 Jul 16 – hazard penalties
I watched the last few hours of the Women’s U.S. Open a few weeks ago. After being at Lancaster Country Club for last year’s Open, I have a new appreciation for how well the ladies play the game. For them, the game comes down to accuracy and keeping the ball in play. I should remember their course management more often when I’m playing. Brittany Lang held a one-shot lead with about 3 holes to play and missed a 5-foot par putt on 17 to throw here into a 3-hole aggregate playoff with Anna Nordquist of Sweden. The playoff was tight – the first two holes were halved in pars going into the par-5 18th hole at CordeValle in Northern California. Fox was covering the Open and on 17, they had a camera very close to a fairway bunker from which Anna had played her approach to the green. As Anna settled here club to take her shot, a tight shot on the head of the club revealed that a clump of sand moved before she’d taken here swing – the dreaded two-stroke penalty. When you’re in a bunker, you’re not allowed to test the sand with your club or establish a lie with your club behind the ball. Knowledge of the softness of the bunker sand behind the ball is supposed to give a player an advantage – therefore, no touchy! I always tell people to go into “Hover” mode with your golf club. Hover the club behind your ball and make sure you don’t touch the sand. In Anna’s case, I really don’t believe she thought she’d touched the sand, but in a playoff there will always be at least one camera focused on your lie for every shot. The penalty dropped here two behind Brittany, but they didn’t inform Anna about the penalty until after she’d played her layup on 18 – if she’d known earlier, she might have gone for the green in 2. Another black eye for the USGA after the debacle regarding Dustin Johnson’s penalty a few weeks earlier. In our league you won’t find television cameras, and you probably don’t have to worry about an infraction as slight as Ms. Nordquist’s, but I have seen clubs touch sand in league play. The usual cause is a profound lack of knowledge regarding play from a bunker. Bunkers are hazards – they have special rules, the first being that you cannot ground your club in a hazard (water or bunker). If someone doesn’t know this in a league match, gently let them know, and let them know that the cost is a penalty of two strokes. Taking the penalty will be a great teaching moment – one they will probably never forget. How about this? You’re in a bunker and you take a stroke without touching the sand with your club. The ball gets out of the bunker, hits the embankment of the green, kills all of the forward momentum and it rolls back to your feet at which point you slam your sand wedge into the sand in frustration. Penalty? You bet. When the ball is in the bunker and you touch the same bunker with your club during something other than a shot, you get the same 2-stroke penalty. So, say you make it out of the bunker and propel the ball all the way across the green and into a different bunker. Can you slam your club in frustration? Sure! Provided the ball isn’t in the same bunker. If you can’t remember the stipulation, don’t slam your club (probably a good policy for all shots and all clubs). If you alter a club during anything other than taking a stroke with it, you must take that club out of play and inform your fellow competitors.